Northern Ireland - I love GREEN

So - I've just returned to London from Northern Ireland. At the moment - Northern Ireland is my all time favourite place right now. I am so in love with the country-side and the coast there. I think it's more gorgeous than the Caribbean. AND the Caribbean is really really pretty - in my humble opinion.

Ok. So I know it's Monday, but as I've said, I just got back - so I think I will backtrack to Saturday.

Saturday morning I awoke quite early so that I would have time to have my coffee, tea, and scone for breakfast. I made sure to enjoy some strawberry jam as well because I had a long day of travel - and I didn't want to eat a whole bunch of junk on the road.
SO - I was ready to meet Kemper at 7:30 am to get on the tube to travel to the bus station that had our train that went to the airport we were flying out of. That sentence was extremely long. Anywho - we got on the tube successfully and made it to Liverpool street station to catch our train.

So we got on the train and I started my scarf. I'm knitting the one that Gramner sent me so it's all green. Kemper pointed it out to me - it was very appropriate that I was knitting a GREEN scarf for our Irish travels. :) So far I think I've gotten about one fourth of the scarf finished. It's looking really nice and I love being able to knit like I always do at home.

Anywho - we made it to the airport and I immediately got nervous. I believe the security measures taken in airports since 9/11 has had a huge effect on me. I always feel like when I'm walking through security that I've done something wrong even though I haven't done anything besides show up with my backpack. I kind of felt like a backpacker - although we didn't carry our backpacks EVERYWHERE.

Right. Moving forward - we made it through security - in fact I made it through with a half full water bottle. I don't know how I did that - I feel like that's ridiculous. Once through the gates Kemper and I went on a hunt for her some breakfast. The airport (Stanstead Airport) was very small...but we finally managed to get her some food and find a place to sit. BUT - of course - the screen didn't announce our terminal until it said in great huge red letters "FINAL CALL"

SO...we literally ran down the gangway trying to find our gate. We found it and discovered that really, last call apparently means first call because we only ended up queing in this ridiculous line waiting waiting and MORE waiting. We finally boarded the plan and got to sit together. The plan ride was literally only forty-five minutes. THEN we were in IRELAND. (Northern Ireland that is - still part of the UK)

And it was really ridiculous because when the plan landed the cabin filled with this crazy music that sounded like the starting music at Oaklawn. Kemper and I died of laughter because as far as we know - we weren't in Ireland to go gambling...

Anywho - we got off the plane and went and found the bus that took us to the Bus Station in Belfast's center. We then just walked (after picking up a map) to our Hostel. We stayed at Lagan's Backpacking Hostel and I will say - even though we got our own private room I was nervous. HOWEVER we essentially stayed in a Bed and Breakfast. We got a nice complimentary breakfast (I got the traditional which I can't figure out why they like beans with their breakfast...). AND the owner - William was great. He gave us plenty of suggestions for things to do in Belfast and Ireland in general. Which is good because upon consideration we realized we totally just winged our trip. I mean we made sure we had transportation and a place to travel - but we didn't plan beyond that.

SO - on Saturday when we arrived and settled in and after I'd managed to wash my face I asked Kemper if she didn't mind doing the Black Taxi tour with me. The tour was suggested by William - of course - and it's a tour given by a taxi -driver on the "Troubles." When WIlliam mentioned it Kemper talked about how she would do that when she came back. I was upset because I wanted to do it too - but then I just asked her and she was surprised at my interest.

Anyways - so we asked William when we needed to book that and he said that they were actually doing one at four that evening...so Kemper and I went exploring around our neighborhood before that and ended up in the Queen's Botanical Gardens. It was absolutely beautiful but it was a little disconcerting. I mean - it was disconcerting because we immediately noticed two things just from walking from our walk from the bus station to the hostel.

Number one - there are a bunch of groups of pre-teens/teenagers that seem to just walk around in small gaggles screaming and shouting at each other. They are extremely intimidating for Kemper and I. I don't know why but we felt like they didn't have anything else to do and apparently - that's when trouble starts anywhere in the world - usually right after school when kids don't have anything to do in the afternoon. Anyway - we got used to it and just ignored them and didn't make any eye-contact.

Number two - The streets were EXTREMELY quiet for a Saturday afternoon. In fact, Kemper called it a 'nervous' quiet. We couldn't figure out where anyone was. After London and all that Belfast (which is the capital of Northern Ireland) was so dead. But it was like there was a nervous tension in the air...and after we took the Black Taxi tour I understood why better. And I was a little less concerned.

SO let's move on to the Black Taxi Tour. Kemper's thesis is on a really interesting topic that I'm going to have to investigate further. Ok. So I don't know how much you know about the Troubles - but it's what the Irish call their problems which involve a strange connection of religion and unionism. Basic back-story is that apparently the rest of the world noticed in 1969 that there is a problem between the Catholic and Protestant communities within Northern Ireland which was a part of the UK. Britain took land from Ireland and gave most of it back and then kept Ulster - which is the region that's Northern Ireland now. This all happened a long time before 1969 and flared up even in the 20s.

BUT - our taxi driver (who was catholic himself so we had an interesting bias in the presentation) took us to the murals and a the peace line and through some of the Catholic community as well as the Protestant community. He said that the peace line (which is a huge wall put up dividing the two communities and closes nights and does not open again until morning) has been up longer than the Berlin Wall. That really hit me. And he said that Belfast was a safe city - no worries - because the Irish don't have any problems with foreigners. It doesn't matter whether they are Catholic or Protestant or Unionists or for a United Ireland. They are interested in making you feel at home and all that - and I can say that that is true.

BUT during the tour we asked him about the strange underlying tension. He smiled and said it's a place just coming out of troubled times. He said that we should wait until nighttime and they would be out frequenting the pubs - and YES - they do come out at night like they're nocturnal. They're loud, which was refreshing, after London where people seem to glare at you for breathing too loudly. Anyway - I have not done the troubles justice - so look at my pictures and ask Kemper. Or ask me to ask Kemper - I really took a lot in during the tour - but more importantly - I was affected in a way that I haven't ever been affected before.

After that pretty heavy-thought provoking tour - we returned to the hostel to ask for suggestions for dinner. We walked all around until we settled on an Italian place. You pretty much can't screw up Italian food. After that (I got a pretty good Calzone) we returned to the Hostel once again to get ready to go to one of the pubs. We got way-laid by three very intense, nice Scottish girls who were also staying in our hostel. One of them was also named Rebecca, she is a fashion student who one day wants to study in London. Anyway - they had way more energy than we did. Our plan was to go to a pub and get a pint and sort of blend in - and they tried for a good fifteen minutes to get us to go to a club.

They finally left and we settled for our walk to the Crown. The crown is a very rowdy pub that is a huge tourist attraction that has been in operation since the 1800s at least. I don't really remember the exact date. Anywho - we went in there and I didn't know what beer to order because I didn't recognize any of the names. (Later I found out that only beers owned by Guiness are in Ireland - so they were all a bit different...) Anyway I asked the bartender for a suggestion telling him that I didn't like Guiness and he was about to say something when a nice middle-aged Canadian lady said - try this one it's called Carling. The bartender said the same so I ordered a pint of it. Well...

Kemper and I spent the evening talking to this nice middle-aged Canadian couple. They reminded me of Mom and Dad - they were on Holiday exploring Ireland from Dublin to the Giant's Causeway to Ediburgh and Glasgow in Scotland. They were nice and easy to talk to - again I think I enjoyed talking to them partly because their Canadian-ness was comforting and they were like Mom and Dad. So. They bought us a drink and I got a half pint of Guiness and I will say that Guiness is AMAZING in Ireland. I'm not kidding. For some reason it was very decent...and...dare I say this...I liked it. I was like...huh? Anyway - so now I can say that I've had Guiness in Ireland...and I can even say I liked it.

Anyway - we left the pub at about eleven because it was really really rowdy. They're not kidding when they say the Irish can drink. They can, and they do, and they LIKE to. They were back in the seating area singing songs and screaming at each other. I'm telling you - I didn't feel like I had to worry about being American because well...they were louder and jollier than I think I've ever been.

We got back to the hostel and I took a quick shower (yeah right. The first shower experience I had resulted in being both frozen and scalded constantly - but after about an hour of this I was clean...) and Kemper and I went to bed in our little private room at the top of like...fifteen flights of stairs. Ha. AND I was so tired from our full day that I slept extremely well.

SO. Now to SUNDAY. (Sorry this is so long - but if I don't write this now I won't write it all - this upcoming week is my midterm week in a sense...)

I convinced Kemper that we needed to go to the Coast of Ireland. It wasn't hard to do - seeing that she loves the sea. But instead of getting a train ticket like we originally planned on doing - we went on a tour. There are pros and cons of going on a tour. Obviously - on a huge bus tour like we went on you can't help but be labeled as a tourist and you're on a time table and all that. But you get to see a lot of things and you get to have fun observing your fellow passengers (maybe the latter only applies to Kemper and I.)

Anyway so we did the Giant's Causeway Coastal tour. We had a full day (from 9 am to 7 pm) and I absolutely loved the views. We went from Belfast to the Giant's Causeway along the coast and we stoped at various castles and such. When we stopped for the rope-bridge that probably would have killed me to walk across - Kemper and I did this cliff walk thing off by ourselves. So we managed to feel like we were just out walking through the coastal countryside. I have some AMAZING photos. I think I made Kemper nervous because I kind of like to get close to the edge - it simply reminds me of Pinnacle. :) (No worries I was safe)

Our bus driver was really interesting. He kept laughing at his own jokes with a strange little laugh and poking fun at us to see if we were listening. We were...most of the time. I can tell you that most places in Ireland Ballymena and any other place with the prefix "bally" literally means the place of. So Ballymena means the place of mena. I could also tell you really boring/interesting things about Irish history that he told us - but you can always ask me later. Ha. I did notice interestingly enough that he avoided the whole Catholic/protestant conflict as often as he could in his information he gave us. He did tell us though (and there are a lot of sheep in ireland) that the Protestants will usually mark their sheep red and the catholics will mark their's blue. It's true. We saw a lot of sheep with blue and red marks on them. Once I think we saw one with both colours - wonder how that works out.

Anywho - we finally got to the Giant's Causeway - which is a really neat bunch of cliffs and hills and rocks at the Northern Point of Northern Ireland along the coast. Let me tell you the interesting bit of Legend that goes with it - because I thought it was pretty funny/interesting. So apparently there used to be a giant named Finn McCool that lived along the Northern Coast of Ireland. And he thought he was the strongest and best-muscled giant in all the world. However - a Scottish giant named Fingal challenged his strength.

Well now, Finn McCool couldn't have any of this so-called challenging so he created a rocky path all the way to Scotland. Well he went over there and saw that Fingal was indeed stronger looking that Finn McCool was. So he ran all the way back home to his wife. His wife dressed him as a baby and when Fingal made his way over the (Giant's Causeway) rocks he went to McCool's house. He saw Finn McCool dressed as a baby and he thought - well if this is how large the baby is I don't want to meet the father. So he ran all the way back to Scotland with Finn McCool throwing rocks at him.

Those Irish. They like their stories and beer and songs.

So we got to walk down to the Causeway and Kemper and I actually touched the sea and picked up some seashells. It was absolutely stunning. It began to rain at that point - but that's perfectly ok - because we saw the first of three rainbows for the day. I have pictures of the rainbows - and unfortunately - there was not pot of gold or a leprechaun at the bottom of any of them. :(

Anywho after that we drove back to the Hostel and Kemper and I had Italian food for dinner again. What's up with that? We must really like Italian food or we must just be creatures of habit. Actually - we wanted to try this 'mexican' place - but it was closed because it was Sunday. Because it was Sunday we were worried the pubs were going to be all closed. Nope. They were open - we wanted to try the one that features traditional Irish music every night that the hostel owner William suggested.

So - we went there and I got a pint of Guiness. It'll probably be the last time I do that unless I'm in Ireland again - Guiness in London is NOT lovely. We listened to the Irish music which involved a fiddle - but then we left because they were all a bit rowdy. Even though there was FOOTBALL (American Football - the redhawks versus the eagles on the telly) I am pretty sure that there were locals in the pub as well. And I'm pretty sure that they started drinking way before five.

Anyway we returned to the hostel and I showered again - this time in a different shower with a less scalding experience. The next morning we got our lovely breakfast - packed and then went city exploring.

We ended up seeing all the sights - like City Hall, the peace statue, the fish (you'll see the pictures at some point - no worries) and old Albert clock (which is an interesting clock after seeing Big Ben all the time). Then we tried to shop for a bit before catching lunch and traveling back to London.

Ugh. London.

Must I mention that there was mostly beautiful Irish sunshine all weekend long? Oh it was so beautiful and green and amazing. I would love to be studying there instead of here. Is it ridiculous that I even like Irish accents better than British? Sheesh. I'm having an identity crisis. Am I Irish? I felt at home there in a hard to explain way.

Anyway once we returned to London the sun was gone and it was bleary - as per usual. AND guess what? We returned right in the middle of a tube strike. SO - Kemper and I walked all the way back from Liverpool Street Station which is a little past St. Paul's. It was a mess there were people everywhere dressed in black and looking posh. (I also forgot to mention that I like Ireland for being a bit less fashion forward and a bit more accepting of any styles...)

Right. Well we got home fine with our backpacks and such and I made a hamburger for dinner. I was impressed with my skills. Although I've prepared hamburger meat and watched both my parents cook it many times - I've never done one myself. It was a great success. :) And now I'm happily full (that is - after hillary let me have some of her chocolate chip cookies)

Ok. Wow. This is a HUGE post. I miss you guys so much. Did I mention that I came home to three lovely letters? One from Jess, one from Uncle Bubber, and one from ALL of you guys? I miss you so much! The letters make me so happy. I think i'll have to write one to the whole family. (I mean you guys get together and eat really good food without me often enough that I should be able to send a letter that you can pass around whilst enjoying REAL five star burgers.)

Ok. It's time for bed...I'm exhausted. I don't know if this post really suffices as to my experiences over there in Ireland but I'm always going to want to talk about it next time I get to see you. Hope you enjoy the pictures which I'll upload tomorrow.

Cheers!